Category: WorldBuilding

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #10 – Social Organization: Government and Politics

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another Worldbuilding post. We’re about three quarters of the way through this worldbuilding series! I don’t know what we’re going to go into next after this questionnaire, but I know we’ll find something! Today, I want to focus on what can be one of the more intriguing elements in a world, if used properly: the introduction of government and politics.

Government and politics has a heavy influence over my novel. Conspiracy is a beautiful thing to create, but it requires a deep and intimate knowledge of how to undermine your own system. In order to do that, however, you must start with a system that you can either build on or poke holes in depending on your story. I hope that I can present these questions in a way that will be easy to understand and easy to build from.

Let’s go! (Here’s the link!)

Government: The Basics

First, we need to start with a structural question: how has magic and the presence of magic users affected the structure of government and the law? Are magic users barred for holding office, or is it mandatory to have magic to hold office? Once we know the answer to this, we can focus on the actual structure of the government.

You have a lot of government types to choose from. I’m going to outline a few options here:

  • Feudal system – The king grants land to the barons, who in turn provide money and knights to him. The barons grant land to their knights, who provide military and protection services to the barons. The knights grant lands to villeins, or serfs, who provides food, labor, and services whenever demanded.
  • Aristocratic system: a government ruled by a small privileged class of people made up of those who feel the best qualified to rule.
  • Oligarchy: power rests with a small group of people.
  • Absolute ruler: One monarch holds supreme authority. Authority is not restricted by any written laws or customs.
  • Democracy: a system of government by the whole population, or all of the eligible members, usually through elected representatives.

Pick something that fits. If one of these doesn’t feel right to you, choose another.

Government: Services

What kind of services is the government responsible for providing? These can include items as broad as maintaining an army or as specific as providing public education. Which services are then provided privately or locally?

Who has the right to levy taxes? What kind of taxes, and on who? This can help establish different social classes.

Who supports the heads of state? What kind of associates and assistants help them out? How are these people selected? Are they elected or selected by the heads of state themselves, or do they apply for the position like any other job?

Who is considered a citizen? What rights and privileges does that grant them? What responsibilities are theirs to take on? Are there any classes or groups of people have fewer rights than a citizen? Why are they kept repressed?

Government: Status and Succession

How can you advance in status? Does more money move you up further, or do you have to be placed in that position based on selection or election?

Then we need to focus on the rules of succession. Who takes over running the government if the head is incapacitated? Is there an apparent heir or successor? How many levels of succession are there? Is there potential for the land to dissolve into chaos? Who is responsible if the heir or successor turns out to be a minor? My story features this element rather prominently. Without giving anything away, I am playing around with who is expected to rule and who will end up ruling along with some ancient Fae laws that will throw the world into disarray.

Government: More Questions

The last several questions revolve around a variety of subjects. Some attest to the protection of the heads of state and the greater land at large. Others refer to coinage, education, and diplomatic relations. I will leave those to you to answer. Feel free to comment with any questions you may have.

I hope you all have enjoyed this article! It was a fun one to write. Happy worldbuilding!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #9 – People and Customs, Part Three

Alright guys, last worldbuilding post for a little bit! I wanted to finish rounding out the people and customs segment before I moved on to talking about something else. Today, we are going to address ethics and values as well as religion. Side note, there is one last subsection of this part of the questionnaire, population. I feel like these questions can be addressed without much explanation on my part. Therefore, I’m going to focus on the other two which frankly, are much larger and more instrumental.

Join me at this link one last time!

Ethics and Values

This is a piece of worldbuilding that is controversial within itself. I’ll try to keep all politically loaded opinions to myself. When building a community’s ethics and value system, one must take care. Know that someone will always disagree with what you are putting in place. If you are respectful about the choices you make and you keep them consistent, your world and your story can only benefit. Good story = happy readers.

Let’s start with something easy. What does your society value most in material goods? Is it gold and jewels or animals and furs? Do different cultures value different things? What about non-material things? Is that more highly valued in your world than material goods?

What kind of events are considered normal and acceptable in society that may not be acceptable in today’s world? What might be considered shocking that would not in today’s world? For example, is being left-handed a sign of greatness or a mark of the Demon king?  Think big issues in today’s world. Decide where they fall in your own world.

How much does your society value honor and honesty? What are the limits of that? Is any lie reprehensible, or do you tolerate white lies? Can binding oaths be broken or must they be honored no matter what? Is there a penalty, physical or magical, attached to that?

Who is considered a citizen in your world? What kind of rights and privileges do they have? Think about your social classes. Some may have more rights and privileges than others.

What is the ideal life that people aspire to? What are the ideal traits that people strive to embody?

Religion and the Gods

The first and arguably the most important thing to consider is how religion views magic. Do any of them forbid the use of magic? Do any require the use of magic in order to be practiced? Is there a difference between miracles and magic? How are they distinguished?

How many religions exist in your world? Break them down and figure out what kind of characteristics they take on. What kind of gods or spiritual beings exist? How active of a role do they take in the buildings or structures in which they are worshipped? Do they have a heavy influence on people’s everyday lives? Define good and evil and what that means to each religion.

Do religions view non-believers neutrally or negatively? This is important to note as this can create tension between peoples. Is there a religion or religions that are heavily intertwined with the state? How present is religion in everyday life? How do people worship?

I hope these give you a lot to think about. Let me know what kind of ideas you come up with! I’d love to hear them!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #8 – People and Customs, Part Two

Continuing from last week’s post, I would like to continue delving into worldbuilding on a societal scale and focus on a few areas of customs today: meeting and greeting, gestures, visits, and language. I’m keeping it light today because this Saturday, we’re going to be focusing on two of the most controversial topics in general: ethics and religion. Buckle up, everybody!

PSA: As always, another link!

Greeting and Meeting

Greeting fellow citizens can be as influential or as mundane as you would like it to be. Will a handshake suffice for the common man as well as the wealthy? Do nobles require a bow or some sort of elaborate movement? Or do you throw tradition to the wind and reverse the two types of greeting and make greeting common folk elaborate and noblemen simple? That’s actually a pretty interesting idea; I may have to use that in a different story…. Hmm…

Now, of course, there can be various customs surrounding greeting someone you have never met before. When your people are introduced to someone for the first time, who introduces them? Is it general or specific? Is there an order that people should be introduced in based on age or sex or status if it is a larger group? If it is a grand introduction, like perhaps at a ceremony, is there a way their name is said to give it more emphasis or stature? What about the differences between your given name and perhaps a “true name”, as some fantasy books like to include? How many people know a person’s “true name”? How many are allowed to know? Don’t forget to note how family members or significant others may greet each other as it could be different!

Gestures

This category really gets into semantics. Think about the way the average person moves in our world. Everyone has their own body language. Some people move their hands when they speak. Some tend to shift from side to side. Others still have habitual movement that comes up when they’re sitting or standing still. Take notice of that in other people that you interact with every day, and apply the same concept to your society.

What gestures are meant as insults? What’s the equivalent of the middle finger in your fantasy world? What gestures are taken kindly, like the “V” for peace? What gestures are signs of respect, like a salute or a bow? These details can add a little spice to your characters.

Visits

What topics should be avoided when you have guests over, particularly family? Politics? Religion? Family affairs? Can you imagine a scene where someone does bring up one of these topics?

How seriously does your world take the responsibilities of host and guest? Is it considered polite to offer food or drink or a place to stay for the night? Do these apply to everyday situations or only to special guests or circumstances? On the flip side, are guests obligated to accept any and all offers regardless of their personal preference? Or are they given the option to choose?

Language

One should exercise caution when deciding what to do about language in your world. Many wonderful fantasy books communicate solely in English with no interesting new words added to the mix. However, a select few manage to create a whole new engaging language to slip in throughout their plot. It takes a lot of creativity to come up with one. Make sure you’re up for the challenge!

Languages can come in all shapes and forms. Some societies have a trade language that helps to facilitate trade between groups or countries that don’t speak the same language. Are there languages only known by a certain group of people such as priests or wizards? Building slang can also be a fun way to incorporate a new language into a story. Slang phrases can really portray a character’s voice and style of speaking. You can also create an entirely new language for magic for the communication of spells and incantations.

Hope you all enjoyed today’s post! See you on Saturday!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #7- People and Customs, Part One

I could not figure out what to post today! I sat in front of my computer, looking at my list of ideas for a half hour, and could not for the life of me figure out what I wanted to write. So I decided to bring y’all another worldbuilding post to continue this saga.

We’ve been focusing at worldbuilding on a larger scale for the most part so far in this series. Geography, natural resources, magic: we’ve built up a strong frame for your world to stand on. Now, I would like us to delve into your individual society or societies and the way that those function in their day-to-day lives. This is an incredibly detail oriented part of the worldbuilding process, so take care in your creating. You may gain whole new ideas from this section of the questionnaire!

Again, here’s the link to today’s questions!

Customs

I’m going to go ahead and skip over the first three questions in the “General” section because I believe they are in the wrong place and aren’t general at all!

This first question is going to draw on pieces that we discussed back when we were building your world. Does the weather or climate create any habits or customs for your society? I want to take that one step further and also include celestial bodies’ effects. For example, maybe your moon rises during what you consider the day, and the sun rises in the evening. That would affect what times people may wake up or farm or use artificial light sources.

Now, we’re going to go very small scale and talk about the family unit. What does the average family look like? How many people are included traditionally? Does this include or exclude extended family? (Note: we’re talking about trends here, not a homogenous end-all be-all detail. Remember not to make your societies one-noted!) Are there any sort of traditional family responsibilities or customs that are undertaken by the people? This can range from a society where the male is the head of the household or a society where a concept of Mother’s Day is a three week long festival celebrating mothers everywhere. Don’t be afraid to invent whatever you want, even if your book may never mention it. These details create depth that may pop up in other places.

Rites of passage can also be important to the understanding of society. In our world, these include events like a bat mitzvah or something even simpler like obtaining your first driver’s license. In a fantastical realm, these can include things like a knighting ceremony or a naming ceremony after birth.

Speaking of birth, what kind of customs and rituals surround the birth of a child? Who is present at the birth? Does the father stay with the mother or is he kicked out? What about the grandmother? Is there a midwife or a doctor present? How is a newborn introduced to the rest of the family? Is there a formal celebration? How about the rest of the community?

As these children grow up, who raises them? Is it a joint parent responsibility, or does one take over more than the other? How do children dress differently than adults, or do they dress any differently? What year do they begin their education? How long does that education last?

Finally, death. What customs surround death and the burial process? Is there a special group of people who takes over the ceremony of death, or does the family take on that responsibility? I really like this last question: are the dead feared, revered, or ignored? This could shape all kinds of other legends and lore.

Eating

Every society has their customs surrounding food. Food has always been something that brings us and bonds us together. So your fantasy world should be no different!

How do people eat together? Do families sit together at the dinner table, or is there a separation between adults and children? What about servants? Do they eat with the family or separate from view?

What dishes are considered holiday or special occasion meals? (Don’t worry, we’ll touch on holidays later in this series.) Are there any foods associated with events like births and burials? What about drinks? Do people only drink alcohol on certain days?

This questionnaire does a great job distinguishing between the average person and the upper class citizen. It asks pointed questions on both formal habits and customs as well as special arrangements that need to be made for important guests visiting. It even encourages you to think about how dining tables are set up and where the guests of honor or heads of household usually sit in relative to the other people.

I think I’ve given you a lot to think about, so I’ll stop here and continue with people and customs in a following post! I hope you all enjoyed. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #6 – Magic and Magicians, Part Two

Welcome back, creators! It’s been a while since I posted an article on worldbuilding, so today, I want to finish up talking about building your magic system. This is going to be another complicated one, so hang in there! By the end of this, you should have a fleshed out magic system that will support your story as it moves along.

Remember: we’re using this link! If you’re looking for part one of this section on magic, please follow this link to start your magical system.

How does magic fit into the overall universe? Is it considered a profession or an art form? How are magic users viewed in society? Is there a stereotype that surrounds them? How does organized religion view magic, if applicable?

One thing to consider is whether magic users are organized politically or as a society and how that organization is structured. In my book, the entire Upper Realm is made up of Fae, and the nobility are the only overarching hierarchy above the average man. However, in your story, you may have various magical races that may all be organized differently. It’s really entirely up to you; the possibilities are endless. But do consider how magic factors into politics because wow, can that get messy! (In a good way!)

I’m going to skip ahead a bit because I believe that this section of the questionnaire is fairly self explanatory. A lot of it goes over subsets of the points I mentioned above or were included in the previous worldbuilding post. So now, we’re going to confront magic’s relationship with technology. This area of worldbuilding is a really great spot to embellish. Starting with magic transportation, everyone’s favorite concept. Flying brooms, magic carpets, dragons, teleportation spells, the world is wide open for you, really. While I didn’t include any of these forms in my story (at the moment), I agree that it is one of my favorite things to imagine about. Don’t forget to consider the negative side effects of magical travel!

How are weapons affected by magic? Can they be fused with magic, or does some property of the weapon impact its ability to utilize magical properties? Does warfare include the use of magical spells in battle? What does that look like? I’m still exploring this area myself. I’ve always enjoyed reading books that include high-stakes battles, but writing one with magic swirling about feels way too complex to tackle at the moment.

How does magic replace what we know in our world as modern technology? What can magic improve on in everyday objects? This is a little nitpicky, so feel free to only elaborate slightly or moderately.

This last section is a bunch of miscellaneous questions that don’t fall under the categories above, but may be useful to you shaping your world. These questions include points about the legality of magic, magical research, magical artifacts, and healing, to name a few. They also, oddly enough, delve into more detail about magic’s role in politics. The last question is one of my favorites: magic’s relationship with the art. I’m a big proponent of the arts and to think of how perhaps emotional magic could set into a song or painting is an incredibly inspiring thought.

I hope you all enjoyed today’s article. Stay tuned for more from this worldbuilding series!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #5 – Magic and Magicians: Rules of Magic

At the request of a new reader to the blog, I want to push out another worldbuilding post today! We’re going to begin diving deep into the building of a magic system, and trust me, its going to get interesting. I know exactly how complex this particular part of a universe can get; I’m just finishing wrapping up the finer details of my own magic system, so I’ve been working in this mode for at least two weeks in two separate periods.

Magic systems take time. That’s what it comes down. Building a magic system from the ground up takes time, especially if you want it done right. And you do because it’s going to be the foundation of your entire universe. Whether magic plays a main role or a supporting role, a fantastical universe will always be held in tether with some type of magic. Patience and attention to detail are key.

Let’s get started! Follow this link to the appropriate page.

Magic: Building a Foundation

Very first question, probably the most important question of all time. What can magic NOT do? What are your limits? This is key; take some real time thinking about this. Make a list. Make it reasonable. When my boyfriend and I were going over my magic system, he kept bringing up these tiny holes, the most nitpicky scenarios of all time, to point out flaws. That’s what he does; I’m not bitter about it. Okay, maybe a tiny bit bitter. I mean, EVERY nitpicky scenario you can think of. But what it did make me realize is that I needed to curtail my magic much more than I had originally anticipated. Not just on a large scale, but on a smaller scale too.

Once you’ve established limits, now you’re going to establish how magic users try to get around these limits. Is there a way of combining spells that have a similar effect as a spell forbidden by your system? Is there a loophole that you particularly need to be exploited during a scene? This can be as simple or as complex as you’d like, just like your limits.

Now to focus on the price of magic. Magic has to come from somewhere; it cannot occur spontaneously unless you want your system to be flimsy. It won’t hold up without at least a leg to stand on. So establish whether it takes years of study to master magic or whether a user uses a bit of their life force every time they use a spell. Then just as above, is there any way magic users try to get around this price?

Let’s talk about how a user can tap into their magic power. What does it take to do that? Can they tap into their willpower to cast a spell? Is there any type of ritual? Is every spell individually cast with different processes or is it all the same? What’s the time frame on a particular spell? Can spells be temporarily stored for later use in amulets or potions?

An Important Step

I want to digress from the questionnaire for a moment because I want to hone in on a step that I feel this questionnaire doesn’t go into enough detail about. A little bit further down this section, you’ll see a few questions based on the varieties of magic practiced. You see one, maybe two questions regarding this topic and then nothing else.

I feel like this is a mistake that this questionnaire makes; it doesn’t give a young writer or a new fantasy writer enough of a basis to know how to build the varieties of magic they want in their story. Don’t get me wrong, this is the best worldbuilding questionnaire out there, but even the best can make some mistakes.

My advice: stop your progress here and take a few days to write down everything you want to be able to do in your story in terms of magic. Add things later as they arise. Organize it. Make it easy for you to read and comprehend, no matter how complex it may be. If you can easily understand it, your readers will understand it.

Here is a fantastic link to start with. This is an article that comprehensively covers the different types of magic. Be prepared to be inspired by magic you didn’t even know existed, let alone had a name for it.

I think this is a good place to stop for today; I hope I’ve given you a lot to start with. Signing off!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #4 – History of the World

Welcome back to another post in my worldbuilding series! Today, I’m going to be guiding you through building the history of your world. We’re going to cover both the broad history  and the specific history of the setting of your story, if applicable.

Now why history? Why think about your world in perspective from the past when your story is set in a present time?

Every event that occurs throughout the course of your story is based in something that happened prior. Whether on a smaller or larger scale, the conditions of your inciting incident occurred because the pieces all lined up at the precise moment. While maybe all points and questions don’t apply, many will help you shape your world and your story simultaneously.

Remember that we’re working off of this link.

World History

First, we’re going to start with ancient history. We’re looking at where the beginning of written record began and what kind of old tales and historical legends are available. These will give you a basis of how much time civilization has existed as well as some historical events that impact your story.

Then we’re going to actually backtrack and revisit a little further back in history: the beginning of civilization. This question is more to track the spread of people across an area. Where towns and cities built up and why. Proximity to natural resources would be necessary, but what about magic? Did magic affect the way people migrated and settled down?

We then move on to one of the most intriguing parts of a world’s history: relationships. If you’re working with a world that has different countries or realms or kingdoms, what are their relationships to each other? You will need to establish alliances, rivals, and trading partners. Relationships between entities such as these could be very crucial to the way your story pans out, especially those planning on introducing a war. If wars play a role in your story, what conflicts in the recent past have left hard feelings amongst participants?

Don’t forget to think about what languages people speak! Whether it’s one or multiple, you could potentially create development of various cultures and how they have spread out across your world over time.

Specific Histories

The next set of questions will only be applicable if you’re working with specific countries or kingdoms within a larger universe. It’s based primarily on comparing one to all of the others. How accessible is this area to outsiders? What kind of resources does it enjoy? What kind of weaponry and defense systems are in place? That specific question is important for establishing the balance of power in an area. Where are the closest rivals?

History is made up of important figures as well. Are there any specific historical heroes or villains in your story that may come up? I know that in my story, the beginning of modern day Fae history starts with the sacrifice of an incredibly powerful Fae queen.

The last questions consider resources and trade, which I will go into more detail with in a later article on the economy.

I hope you all have continued to enjoy this series of worldbuilding specifics and will continue to follow the series. Comment below with any and all questions about worldbuilding!

World Anvil: Back to the Beginning

As I have enjoyed my vacation over the last few days, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about where to improve my novel. Of course, the best ideas always come when you’re actively trying to leave things alone for a while. I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to incorporate more worldbuilding into my story, particularly when it comes to magic interacting with everyday life. Now, I’ve had a solid magic system built since I started worldbuilding, but details have either escaped me over time or have been written down across a bunch of documents I have no organization for. Many of my other elements are like this as well: useful but disorganized.

This is why I think it’s time for me to revert back to a tool that I discovered during the process of worldbuilding and experimented with on and off for a couple months.

Writers, may I present to you, World Anvil.

World Anvil is an online set of tools designed for writers, artists, and RPG creators alike and the worldbuilding process. This website has a lot of great components to help you make the most out of your research and efforts.

The site has templates with worldbuilding prompts to help you create your world and explore the relationship between places, characters, and laws. You can connect entries to each other to build complex families and systems. World Anvil also has features for map building and timeline creation (a feature I would highly reccomend; it did wonders when looking at my universe’s history).

You essentially have the ability to create an entire encyclopedia for your world that you can refer back to over and over again as you write.

A free plan will get you all of the basic features you need and a decent amount of space to store things. Of course, if you want to put a little money into it, you can get things like more storage and extra features. But pretty much everything you need is encompassed by a free plan.

So as I head into next week, I have plans to hop on World Anvil again and see if I can’t straighten my world out. It can only improve my writing, right?

Until next time, friends. <3

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #3: Physical Features

Welcome back! It’s been a while since I posted a worldbuilding post, so I wanted to come back to help out my fellow writers! Tonight, I want to talk about building the physical aspects of your world. This is CRUCIAL to any well-written fantasy story for several reasons. Now, the importance of physical aspects should be obvious, especially if you’re covering a wide area of your world through your writing.

If you need a refresher on the link I’m working from, click here!

Now to start off, you need to determine how much ground your story is going to cover. Are we operating in the context of a singular town, or are we traveling all across a realm? This is going to determine the detail of which you craft individual areas as well as the full universe as a whole.

Next, let’s talk about climate. What does the climate look like in various areas of your universe? Is it consistent everywhere (could be an interesting concept to play with)? What areas have the best climate for farming? Which areas have a climate that makes them inhabitable? How do the differences between your universe and our Earth affect your world’s climate (for example, having multiple suns)?

Now for the fun part! Building the landscape. Anything you can think of is fair game. Mountain ranges, valleys, plains, deserts, islands, rivers, oceans, lakes, forests, ponds: and that’s just the tip of the iceberg (ooh, maybe some sort of ice land mass?). What areas have the most fertile farmland? That question is going to be important for establishing economies. Certain areas are going to have economies that are fueled by cash crops and others that have to import those crops to feed their people.

Where are natural resources located? Various minerals, valuable assets like gold and diamonds, industrial assets like oil and coal, where can you find those? What economies are going to benefit by having proximity to those resources? Where are water resources running through? Is it freshwater? Salt water? Is there any sort of water purification system in place for places that don’t have access to the purest water source? What are those water sources used for primarily? Drinking water, irrigation, used to run things like a mill wheel? Think about how that affects the people of your fantasy communities.

Once you’ve addressed the questions above, among a few others in the questionnaire, you’re going to have a really good idea of the physical aspects of your world. Of course, you’re going to need to refine these basic ideas into something a little more detailed. Remember, throughout this whole process, we’re getting you ready to communicate your world effectively in your story through description. Knowing more about your universe is better than knowing less.

I hope you guys enjoyed this week’s edition of Worldbuilding Questions! Stay tuned for Post #4 where I’ll go over building the history of your universe!

Worldbuilding Questions: Post #2 – The World

As promised, I am starting my Worldbuilding questionnaire walk through off with a bang! Today, we’re going to be looking at the first section of questions, which encompasses the most basic questions about the world you want to create. I want to give you just an overview of the questions (because obviously, you can go to the link and read them yourself), but I also want to give a bit of commentary about why these details are important when crafting your fantasy universe.

Section A: Basics

When I started using this questionnaire, the very first question took me a while to think about. You wouldn’t necessarily think about whether the laws of nature and physics still applied as your first step. I actually had to go look up what these laws were (I don’t do science very well. >.<) But believe it or not, your universe could entirely flip on its head (perhaps even literally) due to changes like these. Does gravity apply? Do the laws of motion apply? Where does magic fit in? Are the laws different because magic exists, or is magic limited by these principles? This will start you thinking about the limitations of your magic system, which we will get to in a later article.

Then you need to make a decision about what type of world this is: an earth-like world or not like Earth at all? This not only will decide which sections of questions you look at next, but it is also going to affect things related to suns and moons, shape of the world, and terrain.

Next is the basics about people! Or non-people, if that’s your preference! These questions are meant to establish the main players in your story. Elves, Fae, dwarfs, demons, sprites, mortals, and many, many more magical creatures can grace the pages of your story, and establishing who those are early on can make things easier for you later. Marking the differences between these types in terms of habitats, living conditions, and magic now can also be useful in formatting your terrain, cities, and your magic system in later worldbuilding.

Finally, you’re going to create a very basic outline of the magic system in your universe.

  1. Where does magic come from?
  2. How much magic is available?
  3. What are the long term effects of magic on a magic user?
  4. What are the differences between magic among different races/species, if any?

Very simple questions to start off. No details yet. However, if you look at them, you can see why this author chose to include them in the basics category. The very existence of magic has to have been established somehow, whether it’s during the timeline of your story or thousands and thousands of years before.

Section B: Alternate Earth

Writers who view their universe has being an alternate version of our Earth should take note of this section. Here, you will establish where fantasy diverts away from history. How similar are the histories and cultures of our planet in comparison with yours? What makes them different? Is there a specific point in time where our knowledge of our world ends and yours begins? If not, show where things diverge slowly over time through everyday life changes. If magic exists, how have the inhabitants of Earth been unaware of it this whole time? This set of questions works particularly well for historical fantasy.

Section C: Not Earth At All

Everyone else! Join me! My universe, the Three Realms, falls under this category. You will find that this set of questions is not focused on history and culture (we will get to that later), but instead on the physical aspects of your world. Obviously, we need to establish shape, terrain, and celestial bodies (if any) circling around your world. I didn’t realize it until after I had already built my universe (which only has one sun and moon) how much it would affect aspects like the wind, the tides, and the weather if I had chosen to add something like a second moon. If you set the moons on the same side, the tides would be thrown completely out of whack. If the moons were on opposite sides of your universe, could you create an ocean that stays still? Lots of interesting things to think about.

Comment below with any questions or ideas about your own fantasy universe! I’ll see you next time where we’ll be discussing physical and historical features.